


Cycle After Cycle

by MysticPirate



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aang didn't survive the iceberg, Avatar Cycle, Avatar Zuko (Avatar), Bad Parenting, Dysfunctional Family, Fire Nation Royal Family, Gen, Long Feng is even more calculating and evil here, Lots of little kids get murdered, Shyu is a quiet badass, Shyu is the real hero here, Sozin starts very bad things, The Royal Fire Family is a lot of bad eggs, Were these tags supposed to be in order?, Worldbuilding, avatars have a very short life expectancy, good parenting, huh I wrote a thing, i want more pairing free fanfiction!, if you want more than four chapters someone will need to adopt story where i leave off, its probably not that logical, just realized how depressing this story is, my logical lizard brain demanded I write this, the North needs a feminist revolution soon!, there is violence just not graphic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25475605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysticPirate/pseuds/MysticPirate
Summary: In Sozin's Quest to be the most powerful nation in the world, the Royal Fire Family MUST be the most powerful of all benders. This means no original Dragon Masters.  No Avatars.This story is a collection of snippets of over a hundred years of Avatar hunting because the logical, rational portion of my brain doesn't like that Aang survived frozen in an iceberg and it wanted there to be a good reason Prince Zuko should be the Avatar and bad at firebending.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	1. Cycle 0

**Cycle 0: Avatar Fire: Roku (82 BSW – 12 BSW)**

It is said, absolute power corrupts, absolutely. But Sozin had always felt absolute power brought about clarity. Holding his childhood friend’s hand over that active volcano. This so-called friend who was supposed to be the most powerful being on the planet. This all powerful being who snuffed out so quickly from the simple motion of releasing a hand. Sozin was the Fire Lord. He was the most powerful Fire Bender in the world. It became clear that the Fire Lord NEEDED to be the post powerful fire bender in the world in order to protect the interests of the nation. Which were his interests.

Thus began the hunts on the dragons.  
Because Sozin’s Firebending was perfect! He had nothing more to learn. Nor would he allow any but those of his royal line to surpass him.  
“Besides,” he’d tell his subjects eager to earn his respect. “What better way to prove you are Master than by defeating a Master?”

Thus began the hunts on the Avatars.  
Which it would be just so much better if Sozin could just find a way to just permanently break and eradicate the Avatar Spirit. 

A theory, the only theory, his Head Sages had for him was to kill a complete cycle of human hosts the Great Spirit embodied before they could become fully realized Avatars. That might break the Spirits connection to the mortal plane and send it back to the Spirit World. 

Sounded plausible. He let the Sages keep their lives.

Thankfully none of them knew about the affects of killing the Avatar while in the Avatar State.


	2. Cycle 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sozin manages to snuff out an entire cycle of Avatars. He doesn't get to live long enough to see if he actually managed to send the World Spirit back to the Spirit Realm where it belongs.

**Cycle 1: Avatar Air: Aang (12 BSW – 00 BSW)** (m12)

Wiping out an entire element is not as easy as it looked on paper. The Air Nomads had four temples, in four different sections of the world. Also, nomads. Many of them wouldn’t even be at the temples when the comet was scheduled to arrive. 

But Sozin was determined. He could do this. He had to.

Even with the worthless excuses for fire benders that were his Fire Sages. At this point he was only keeping them for tradition and the few times they proved to be actually useful. The Avatar was born in the Southern Temple and they confirmed his identity 11 years ago. That was the limit of the information they could provide him. Sozin refrained himself from firing the lot of them for their failure. He only fired three of the five Head Sages. 

The story of how the Avatar’s identity is uncovered, as Sozin understands it. Is when a nation is expecting the Avatar, they hire extra Sages to keep tabs on all the newborns. Normally a child possessed by the Avatar Spirit will display their bending talent between 12 and 24 months. (Sozin was surprised at the discovery that he himself had been tested since he first bended at 20 months, three weeks sooner than Roku!) This test is just an array of objects. Three that had belonged and were known prized possessions of the previous Avatar. Then another dozen of whatever the Sages could scrounge up. Apparently, Roku had actually picked the three items Kyoshi’s Sages had sent over. Why a White Lotus tile was one of them, Sozin had no idea. It was the most worthless piece in the whole game! The whole concept was plainly ridiculous. Regretfully, it seemed to work. Both for Roku, and the following Air Avatar. Sozin did not fry the Sage who had sent Roku’s items to the Air Temples. The Sage made a valid point when cowering at his feet that it actually would be beneficial to his cause if he knew who the Avatar was. 

Sozin fried the Sage 11 years later when that knowledge proved to be actually worthless.

So, there was an air child who air bended at 9 months, that immediately snatched up Roku’s worthless trinkets. Which was all the more reason Sozin needed to snuff this child out before he could begin the Avatar journey at 16. No infant bent, any element, before they mastered sitting up on their own (which takes about a year). It was just unheard of! 

While the Fire Sages seemed determined to stand in the way of his personal agenda for a greater Fire Nation, Sozin at least had Agni’s blessing. Why else would the Great Comet be coming through when this Air Avatar brat was only 12? This comet was Agni’s personal gift to Sozin! After this, it will be forever known as Sozin’s Comet! 

Sozin along with his wife, joined the troops going South. The timing was perfect. Their royal airships saw the temple as Agni awoke on the day of the comet was set to light aflame. An hour later, just as predicted, the comet they had traced through the heavens for the past twelve days, lit up with the power of a hundred suns. They crested the edge of the temple and for the next nine hours they burned everything that would ignite. No wind could stop them. No rock or water could hinder their conquest. It was glorious. 

That night Sozin made love to his wife. 

A few days later a Messenger Hawk arrived from the Sages, announcing that the Avatar Temple flashed blue signaling the birth of the next Water Avatar.

Nine months later, his son was born. 

Sozin never knew that the Avatar was shot down, in a storm, over the arctic, by a random fire ship patrol sent out to catch those that would flee instead of fight at the temples. It only mattered that the brat died.

**Cycle 1: Avatar Water: Nukilik (00 DSW – 04 DSW)** (f4) 

For the past four years, since the birth of her beautiful baby girl, Ikiaq has seen nothing but black snow. 

Slowly, systematically, the ash makers have worked their way through the Southern cities. Melting their great walls. Burning everything in their path. Especially the babies. Oh Tui and La, the children were burned first! Foremost those of little Nukilik’s age! The were hunting the Avatar, and destroying whatever else they could while they were at it. 

There was no amount of pleading that would sway the soulless skull masked soldiers. 

A few could be bribed. 

Like the one her young family encountered. This Skull Face had asked for three times as much than she overheard him demanding from the other father whose son was two years older. But it didn’t matter. Ikiaq and her husband came from wealth. They could pay. That time. 

And the time following that. 

But as the wealth was melted and the people from the cities were forced out deeper onto the ice in smaller and smaller tribes. With less and less possessions. It got harder to pay, but their neighbors helped out. Because Nukilik bended at 12 months. She was never able to go through the Avatar Trial, though she should have. And there were fewer and fewer children of her age range. They had to keep her alive and hope for the best. 

But eventually they got the soulless ash maker who couldn’t be bribed. Or maybe their wealth was so depleted it just wasn’t enough to bank their fires. Either way, they mourned and prayed the Water Avatar was still out there. 

They had no way to know that the Avatar temples not yet destroyed, flashed green upon Nukilik’s death.

**Cycle 1: Avatar Earth: Hong (04 DSW – 19 DSW)** (m15)

It’s year 16 DSW, which means Azulon has finally come of age and can prove to his father, the greatest Fire Lord the Fire Nation has yet produced, that he is a worthy successor. After all, He was conceived during Sozin’s Comet. He first fire bent at 15 months. The only reason he wasn’t already a master bender was due to his lack of accomplishments which were due to his age.

Capturing the Avatar would fix everything currently out of synch in his life.

Which is why he started two years ago. 

He couldn’t leave the palace, but he could set up situations that made some soldiers and servants indebted to him. Who could leave. After all, he didn’t need to do the grueling task of rumor gathering himself. That’s what underlings were for. 

Maps he could “borrow” from unwitting generals or advisors. 

Correspondence he could have copied from his father’s mail. 

All the information he’d need to actually find the Earth Avatar, who was four years and in every social way, his lesser, was compiled, analyzed, and narrowed down to only what he’d need to capture the Avatar. 

The only problem was, the Earth Kingdom being so stupidly large! 

It didn’t matter. Azulon had good reliable intel, and a dozen solid leads. He’d be back home within the year victorious.

His years of intel gathering at the palace turned out to not be as useful.

It turned out to be a three year hunt.

His target ended up being a boy named Hong. Who had accidentally bent flaming cooking oil away from his younger brother who grabbed something he wasn’t supposed to. 

The village along the great desert was looking for a fire bending master to train the boy. Azulon happened to be the nearest available. Lucky him. Especially when they put up a fight and Azulon got to demonstrate his fire bending prowess and mortally wound the Earth Avatar. 

There was a token effort to keep the Avatar alive until they got back to Caldera City. At least Azulon was told the boy was alive, for as alive as a boy in a coma could be. Azulon still personally checked in daily, made sure he was breathing. All looked in order to him. But when they landed it turned out the Avatar was dead, and had been dead for a while. There was a traitor to the Fire Throne on Azulon’s ship who somehow managed to set up an air bag to simulate the dead Avatar breathing. No one on the ship knew when during the two-week journey it had happened. No one came forward. Every guard, every servant who had stepped foot anywhere near the lowest hold were court martialed and integrated. 

But the Fire Sages knew when the temple flared red, and by this point, knew their life spans were directly related to how loyal they were to the Fire Lord and not the Avatar. 

The timing lead to a guard with a pocket full of Pai Sho pieces. He vanished before he was able to be executed. 

**Cycle 1: Avatar Fire: Junko (19 DSW – 20 DSW)** (f1)

So Sozin and his heir managed to bring the Avatar Cycle back around to fire. 

Roku had taught him that even a Fire Nation Avatar wouldn’t understand, nor put the Royal Family therefore the people of the Fire Nation first as they should. Not that Sozin had any intentions of allowing any fire bender to be more powerful than those of his royal line. 

There were also no artifacts from the previous Earth Avatar they could reliably use to pinpoint the Fire Avatar. Not that Sozin trusted the test anyways.

The Avatar Spirit was going to be sent back to the Spirit Realm where it belonged. There would be no margins for error either. 

Sozin turned his soldiers on his own people.

They marched through every home. They snatched every child that was two years or younger. Most subjects were loyal and handed over the appropriately aged babies. This was a sacrifice for the good of the Nation. This was to help ensure the Fire Nation’s greatest threat, was eradicated. This was Agni’s will. Afterwards, whether consciously or not, it became common place to use Agni’s name in vain.

Those who did not hand over their babies, are not talked about. They are thought to not exist. 

Many mothers, fathers, caretakers also did not survive the Great Purge. They were weak. 

Fire Lord Azulon didn’t either. His death came late in the year 20 DSW. He was 102, and it was a quiet death in his own bed. He wasn’t weak, but at that age, no one suspected foul play. Nor noticed a missing tile from his Pai Sho set.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Apologies over Aang. I love Aang, really. He’s just not meant to be a part of this story. But I have Air Benders surviving! Yea?
> 
> Note on Comet in Aang's story: I don’t think canon was ever clear on how long the fire bender’s power was boosted. I’m using knowledge from the 1986 Halley’s Comet. It’s the closest Earth has to a 100 yr comet. Halley was visible in the sky Oct/Nov of 85 and again in Mar/Apr of 96. There was a week in the Spring it was at its brightest. But in order to get the fire power talked about in the show, the comet has to hit Earth’s atmosphere and ignite. Now there’s a whole lot more science behind these comets that burn, mainly they burn up and are gone, or their course is altered so that it cannot be a regularly scheduled comet. But kid’s cartoon. Some things you just have to roll with. I rolled 4 d6 and got 9 to get how many hours it burned.
> 
> I debated with myself on naming the Fire Avatar. (Honestly any of my created Avatar's to young to know their own names.) After all, she died in infancy. What history books care about infant names? But she had a mother and a father who loved her very much. So no harm in giving it in the title, even though it's lost in the story.

**Author's Note:**

> AUTHOR’S RAMBELINGS: Just want to experiment with an idea, I have no intentions of making this an epic long fic. (I have an epic long fic in mind, just trying to find motivation to write it. I guess I’m hoping that by writing this it’ll motivate me to write that…. It’s just… writing… ewww… you all have no idea how much RESPECT I have for all the authors on here. Hero’s. All you who finish the giant stories!) But, lately I’ve been reading lot of Avatar Zuko fanfiction. It’s great fun and I love most all of the stories I read, the subscription feature is the BEST! I had three stories post new chapters today alone! (^-^) But, soo few go into the Avatar cycles between Aang and Zuko. Maybe I just love playing with time lines, which the show creater’s really didn’t. (Sozin was 82 when Azulon was born, I know powerful benders can live a long time, but daaaaang.) I also have a strong passion for making characters. So many character concepts to play with and it usually results in fleshing out an area of the world only glossed over. (Which I do define as FUN)
> 
> And as much as I love reading Avatar Zuko fiction, there’s always the stupid little logical cynic in the back of my lizard brain telling me that the Avatar Spirit wouldn’t willingly choose a royal bloodline. Though thousands of cycles, it would have learned and respected that the royals need to keep their dedication to their specific people and it’s just not nice to double their responsibilities, or force em to change. But what if it had to. I have a hard time believing the Avatar Spirit would just cease to exist just because it’s human host never grew up, never mastered the elements a few lives in a row. (There has been more than one fic that uses this as a plot point to make Zuko accept Avatar role. Which sure the boy is a torture magnet, but is it really necessary to effectively blackmail and guilt him further? “Accept your duties as the Avatar and be successful or else you will forever be responsible for the loss of the great world spirit.” ~that line really needs an ominous soundtrack and eerie voiceover~ But their stories are theirs, and they have to write them according to what their muses inspire. And it works for their stories!) But, no. I don’t think it could end the Avatar cycle to have 4 unsuccessful lives in a row. Weaken it? Hells yes! My annoying rational tick in my brain is happy to believe it would make the bender’s bending week. Which is another problem my rational brain throws it’s hands up in a huff when it escapes the box I shove it in. If Zuko was the Avatar, why is his bending weak? Sure, the mental abuse from his father and sister stunts a lot of his bending. But as the Avatar, he should be the same natural as his sister. Unless, the Avatar Spirit has been through several cycles of zero fire bending. And then I wondered how many Avatar’s I could squeeze between Aang and Zuko. 
> 
> Turns out 10. Throw in Aang an Zuko, it’s an even dozen in a hundred year span. 
> 
> I’ve tried to stick to the show creators timelines for major events, which was really hard to do because they were very wishy washy about timelines. But a lot isn’t mentioned, so futzing happened. Also, Canon? That’s for firing rubber ducks off pirate ships. (Ask me how I know 😉)
> 
> Also, thing to know as you read this, I dropped the G (Genocide) when taking about the dates and am going with SW (Sozin’s War). I know it’s cannon that all the Air Nomads were wiped out in the comet. But I don’t care how fricking powerful a comet is. There were 4 temples! In 4 very different parts of the world! And they were called Nomads for a reason! They couldn’t all have been in the temples when the attacks hit. The only way to get them all would be to burn the entire effing world! That didn’t happen. So, BSW (Before Sozin’s War) and DSW (During Sozin’s War). I’m trying to appease the rational tick in the back of my brain that keeps escaping its box peoples. Sorry, not sorry?
> 
> Also I promise the other chapters will be longer, I plan to do all four element cycles in each. And the Notes/Rants will be shorter!
> 
> Thank you for reading! 
> 
> END AUTHOR’S RANT (also, if you read all that, get yourself a cookie!


End file.
